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The Curious World of Dickens

Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Published to mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens's birth, The Curious World of Dickens celebrates the great English novelist by exploring key themes of the Victorian age reflected in his works. Each chapter, prompted by quotations from Dickens's novels and writings, delves into topics such as London’s public entertainments, domestic pastimes, the transformative impact of railways, school life, and harsh conditions in workhouses and prisons. The book also examines Dickens's role as an actor-manager and the popularity of stage adaptations and public readings of his works. Featuring reproductions of original weekly and monthly covers, illustrations, and advertising paraphernalia, this richly illustrated volume vividly brings to life the vibrant world of Dickens and his characters.
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Format: Hardback
$3299
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book is ideal for readers interested in Victorian literature, fans of Charles Dickens, and those fascinated by 19th-century British culture and history.

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This book celebrates the greatest of English novelists by illustrating his abiding preoccupations. It reproduces extracts from the novels alongside a selection of the original covers, their illustrations and all the paraphernalia of nineteenth-century advertising, breathing life into the vibrant world of Dickens and his characters.

VISIT THE EXHIBITION
Dickens and his World
2 June - 28 October 2012
Bodleian Library, Oxford

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Published to mark the 200th anniversary of Dickens's birth, this book celebrates the greatest of English novelists by illustrating some of his abiding preoccupations.

Prompted by quotations from the novels and other writings, each themed chapter explores contemporary images relating to salient topics of the Victorian age, such as the public entertainments of London and the domestic pastimes of its inhabitants. It also delves into the coming of the railways, which were to transform Victorian England in fiction and in fact, school life for children, and conditions in the workhouses and prisons, which loom so large in many of the novels and which blighted Dickens's own childhood.

Dickens was an incorrigible showman, and this book also explores his role as actor-manager of theatrical productions, as originator of the myriad stage adaptations of his books, and as supreme interpreter of them himself in the public readings which came to dominate his later years.

Reproducing key extracts from the novels alongside a selection of the original covers as they appeared weekly and monthly in the bookshops, their crucial illustrations, and all the paraphernalia of nineteenth-century advertising, The Curious World of Dickens is a unique approach which breathes life into the vibrant world of Dickens and his characters.

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

"Dickens had an uncanny way of writing everyday life into his novels, and Hurst and Moller's beautifully illustrated book shows how integral Dickens's everyday world was to the creation of his texts. An interesting and tactile look at the intersections between Dickens's literary world and the everyday world in which he lived." — Victorian Periodicals Review

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781851243846

Publisher: Bodleian Library

Format: Hardback

Date Published: 02 June 2012

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Bodleian Library

Illustration: 95 Illustrations, color

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 190.0mm

Height: 190.0mm

Weight: 482g

Pages: 112

About the Author

Clive Hurst is Head of Rare Books at the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Violet Moller is a freelance writer and researcher with a PhD in early modern libraries and knowledge.

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